The Stylistic Differentiation of the English Vocabulary
Types of meaning
The word has a complex semantic structure. It conveys 2 types of information: 1) information which constitutes the subject of the message, it is objective information reflecting reality; 2) subjective information revealing conditions of communication and peculiar features of participants of communication. The objective information corresponds to denotative meaning, the secondary subjective information corresponds to connotative meaning.
Denotative meaning is the name of the whole of the concept, it is the naming given to a certain phenomenon through one of its qualities. It is a historical category which changes in the course of time, as a result, the word may denote different concepts acquiring primary and secondary meanings.
Connotative meaning expresses feelings and emotions called forth by the phenomenon or object denoted by the word. The function of the connotative meaning is to show the subjective evaluative attitude of the speaker towards the object spoken of.
The connotative meaning comprises several components: emotive (emotional), evaluative, expressive and stylistic. All these components may be registered in the dictionary meaning of the word or develop only in a certain context.
The words with a marked emotive component express feelings and emotions experienced by people towards the object, person, or quality denoted by the word. Interjections are the words which have only emotional connotation; they do not possess any denotative meaning. All the other words usually have both denotative and emotive connotative meanings, for example, endearments: honey, sugar, flower, blossom, baby, when they are applied to people to express feelings of love and tenderness. Such words as bitch, hell, bastard usually express hate and contempt.
The evaluative component expresses a positive or negative attitude of the speaker towards the object denoted by the word. For example, time-tested method (positive), out-of-date method (negative).
In the context evaluation may change to its opposite: from negative to positive and contrary.
Besides, some words which are not marked with any connotation may develop some kind of evaluation in a context, such meanings are called contextual.
The expressive component serves to emphasize the meaning of the word. It may be done by means of intensification of the meaning, for example, with the help of intensifying adjectives and adverbs: terribly nice, awfully beautiful, dead tired, terrific make-up. Besides, expressiveness may be based on transference of meaning which leads to imagery. All types of figurative use of languages contributes to expressiveness: metaphors, similes, epithets: blood-red sunset (instead of red sunset).
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The stylistic component marks the reference of a word to a certain situation of communication: formal or informal, scientific, official, every-day, etc. For example, maiden, foe, realm belong to poetic texts; ops, vet, why, well, damnably – to every-day communication.
The Stylistic Differentiation of the English Vocabulary
All words of the English vocabulary are divided into
- stylistically neutral;
- stylistically coloured/ marked.
Stylistically neutral words constitute a larger group. This group words express only denotative meaning, they are devoid of any connotation: book, man, speak, write, etc. Neutral words merely signify corresponding phenomena.
Stylistically coloured words bear some kind of connotation, they may be marked with one, two or all the four components of the connotative meaning. They may change the colouring of a whole neutral utterance.
Stylistically coloured words are represented by two lexical groups: literary words and colloquial words.
Literary words
1.1 Terms.
Terms or technical words are used to denote different kinds of notions referring to science, technique and arts. They are usually monosemantic. They are deprived of any emotional or expressive colouring. Terms are marked by stylistic connotation indicating the field of science or industry they belong to. The sphere of their application is scientific prose or publicistic works. In these texts they do not perform any stylistic function. If the occur in fiction they play a special stylistic role reveling the profession of the character and creating the true-to-life background. Terms usually appear in conversation, thus contributing to speech characterization. Terms are employed in books of science fiction or fiction where some field of science is pictured.
1.2 Archaisms.
Archaisms are words which are no longer recognizable in Modern English. They were in use in OE, and they have either dropped out of use altogether or have changed in their appearance beyond recognition: troth (faith), losel (a worthless lazy fellow), antic (bizarre, clown), assoil (pardon), belike (perhaps).
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1.3 Historical words.
These words designate objects and phenomena which have gone out of use and carried away their names with them: archer, baldric, swain, spear, vassal, argosy (a large merchant ship).
Historical and archaic words are found in historical novels. The function of historical words is to create a special atmosphere of a past epoch, the so-called historical colour. Archaisms and archaic forms are employed in dialogues to characterize personages through their speech.
1.4 Neologisms.
These are words that denote new objects and processes. They may be subdivided into lexical neologisms and stylistic neologisms. Lexical neologisms denote new concepts and objects: lasetripsy, depowerment, refusenik. Stylistic neologisms give new names to already existing notions and objects. They are coined for the sake of expressiveness. They are often individual production, their main function is to create a humorous or ironic effect, to achieve greater expressiveness.
1.5 Barbarisms and foreign words.
Barbarisms are late borrowings from Latin, French, Italian and other languages. They have become part of the English word stock but they have retained their original foreign form: spelling and pronunciation. Barbarisms in speech may point to a high social and cultural level of a character. Besides, there is some elegance and delicacy about some barbarisms and they make the speech more exquisite and refined.
Foreign words may be used in fiction to characterize the speech of characters of non-English nationality, or to create a foreign background.
Colloquial words.
2.1 Colloquial words proper.
These words are restricted in their use to every-day communication. They are words with a tinge of informality about them. They can’t be used in formal speech. They may be colloquial synonyms of neutral words (chap (fellow), chunk (lump)); diminutives (granny, daddy, piggy), interjections (gee! eh?) and others. They are widely used in modern fiction, both in narration and in dialogues to create a natural tone of informal conversation.
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2.2 Slangy words.
They are more degraded than colloquial words and are restricted in their use to certain situations. There exist numerous groups of slangy words which denote ideas arousing a great emotional reaction such as violence, sex, drugs, drunkenness, and girls (bint, bird, chick, baby, tart). Slangy words often bear a negative assessment and convey a critical and cynical view of life. Slangy words are typical of modern fiction about teenagers where they are found in dialogues.
2.3 Jargonisms.
They are subdivided into social jargonisms and professional jargonisms.
Social jargonisms are words used by particular social classes and groups to conceal the meaning from outsiders. It is a sort of secret code made up either of ordinary words used in special meanings or distorted words.
Professional jargonisms are words used by professional groups to give new vivid names to tools, machines, and processes connected with an occupation.
2.4 Vulgarisms.
These are rough, coarse words, swear words and oaths. These are words which denote intimate spheres of human body and physiology, or words which have a very strong negative emotive connotation. They characterize the speech of the uneducated or the uncultured. They may also be used to characterize affected colloquial speech of a person gripped by strong emotions: smeller (nose), dirt (money).
2.5 Dialectal words.
These are words restricted in their use to a certain district. English and American authors often make use of dialectal words to represent the speech of dialect speakers. But dialectal words proper are used rarely, authors resort to stylization: imitate dialectal pronunciation and introduce ungrammatical forms.
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